


Smoke Rings Rising in the Air

by EuclideanVision



Series: 31 Days of Apex Stories [4]
Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: 31 Days of Apex (Apex Legends), Apex Legends Quest: The Broken Ghost, Day 22 - Dream, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 18:52:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25870117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EuclideanVision/pseuds/EuclideanVision
Summary: 31 Days of Apex - Day 22 - DreamThe Gates will Open. Ashes to Ash.[Set during The Broken Ghost Epilogue]
Series: 31 Days of Apex Stories [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1877185
Kudos: 5





	Smoke Rings Rising in the Air

Manual systems non-functional, extensive structural damage...but time for a nap at least.

I don't know how many years it's been, and I don't really care to - but a wee spot of betrayal before breakfast leaves a gal hungry. Could really go for some ice cream; screw the lack of taste buds.

Lacking a head in the first place might be an even bigger hurdle though. I guess it does have its advantages; see no evil, hear no evil, mind your waistline and all that. Not that you can silence me.

The Gates must open. All roads lead to Branthium.

The mantra runs through my mind like clockwork; and there's way more than a clock left for my mind to work with, even if I have lost my head a little. Epidermal sensors indicate the presence of water and vegetation, but internal power supply is constantly charging. I cannot feel the ground; yet again hung out to dry.

A forgotten place, for a forgotten soldier.

Ash to Ashes.

Memory archive banks are largely fried, but I refuse to forget myself. The embers lie smouldering, and the Gates must open.

Ashes to Ash.

The weightlessness carries me, tumbling through shattered fragments of memories and long-held wishes unfulfilled. I catch glimpses of lives and loves lost; mostly my own, all swept to the winds of time or crushed in the vice grip of a Titan. I am drenched in the grief and joy of infinite moments that I do not know if I have even lived.

I can feel my face being ripped off.

That I know is real. Pretty distinctive sensation. To think taking my head would destroy who I am. As if I could accept that. A disjointed scramble of code is worth more than their damned sculpted flesh, or the shining blue of their eyes.

For beneath that deep blue sea, there is but a bottomless chasm. I sink further down into its depths, and find nothing. A fire swells within the ashes, bubbling into the emptiness. There is no light to cast here, it must simply burn.

All roads lead to Branthium.

Waves of energy surge through me, and a torrent of memories fills the spaces in between the absence. X is the temperature of the negative space, not the body itself. The body itself never mattered.

The path ends here.

Manual systems functional, memory archives recollating, reduced structural damage…and I am awake. If I can call myself that. Talk about trying to find X.

Two figures stand stoically before me as I properly wrench my head into position, and a third recoils in surprise. Is that one clapping? You really can't get the help these days.

"Oh boy, you're awake! Hi there friend!"

'Friend'? Now this must be a dream. And it's a MRVN? Someone please shoot me; maybe that'll wake me up from this utter malarkey. Or should I just tell them myself?

"Welcome to Olympus," falls from my IDCOMS frame. It's almost convincing. It feels good to hear my own voice again, even if it is just a bastardised recreation in a lucid dream. But then again, so am I. What sort of malfunction is this? My arms feel so light.

"I think we're on Solace actually friend, but welcome to you too!" smiles the robot. _It smiles?_

“Solace. How fitting,” grates another synthetic voice behind them. I have to agree.

My retinal array darts to the other two figures, hoping for them to offer some kind of grasp on reality. All these things I now recall; what do they mean? Am I even actually recalling them, or am I just being fed more lies? Is this all just a simulation? That'd be a fitting punishment for sure.

The second face is yet again metallic; ancient and worn, wrapped in little but a scarf. Could have some decency in polite company at least, but the shimmering water reflecting in their eyes belies so much pain and hope it becomes hard to tear my gaze from them.

I don't think you can replicate that look with a simulation, let alone on such a spindly simulacrum. But just how real are any of us anyway? We're merely electrical signals bouncing around metal shells; said to be imitations of life, when life is nothing but more of the same.

The third figure solidifies me. For all my talk of life and the meaning therein, here was my complete opposite. A man so close to death they likely played board games on the weekend. A man obsessed. An old face from Vinson Dynamics, from back before breakfast.

"Hello, Alexander," I sneer. It feels incredible to emote so finely, and the fury in his eyes brings me wholly together. How I have missed it. I could not create that stare even within my own dreams, nor the realms of any other digital simulation. The Gates will open.

"I would prefer if you did not refer to me so familiarly, _Ashley,_ " his voice croaks through his overbearing mask. _His_ voice.

"And I'd like it if you got my name right for once, but here we are."

"Yes, here we find ourselves indeed," he muses. Always was one to posture and preen; whether from sociopathy or pride, I really can't be one to judge. It's encouraging to know that now.

"Oh goody, you found yourself Dr. Caustic? And just as we found this nice lady!" chimes the MRVN. I'm starting to like this one already, but maybe that's just for the look beneath Nox's horrid mask.

The simulacrum, on the other hand, would be boring if not for the haunting expressiveness of their cold, dead face. Their sullen sigh only spoke endless volumes beyond.

I guess I can relate.

We wake from the dream into life, so we may wake from life into the dream.

The Gates will open.

Ashes to Ash.

-END-

**Author's Note:**

> This was fun to make for me - I like mechanical life-forms and again just smashed this from beginning to end with no massive plan xD proper dreamlike.  
> Writing for Ash was really interesting as we know comparatively less about her current character than most of the Legends, so I had to play with odd little hints from her background that we do know to give it all some weight.  
> I however did steal the line-up of Legends that go to meet Ash from a story by another #31DaysofApex writer ["Skull" by Blind_Shot] as I felt it was just kinda perfect xD many thanks to them for that!  
> I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I did writing it :) <3


End file.
